Social Networks in Hellenistic and Roman Etruria: The Economic Effects of Roman Conquest

Abstract

The domination of Etruria by Rome is an aspect of Roman colonization which is generally well understood. Etruria, which began as a significantly more powerful entity than Rome, was brought to heel through the establishment of bilateral treaties and Roman colonies. This study seeks an even further nuanced model for the nature of the conquest of Etruria-namely looking at the underlying mechanisms that made the treaties and colonies successful. Social network analysis is particularly well suited for this task as it visualizes interaction and exchange between sites which often times dictates a sites success or failure. When enlarged to the regional scale SNA can be used to understand how a region prospers or declines based on site interactions. For my study I used SNA to discuss how Roman conquest affected Etruscan exchange networks-especially economic exchange networks-and how this network transformation was used to control the region of Etruria. The results show that Rome all but replaced the previous Etruscan network with their own Imperial network that seems, based on preliminary research, centered on strategically selected administration centers in Etruria-utilizing both native Etruscan sites and newly inaugurated Roman colonies.